Inside the New York Yankees clubhouse with MLB.com beat writer Bryan Hoch.

Do you feel a draft?

I may be the only one in Yankee Stadium who isn’t completely engulfed with Jason Giambi’s game-winning home run. That’s because I’ve been on draft duty all day, and I’ll likely be here in the press box long after the last guy blowing garbage around the left-field bleachers has headed home. Day 1 is once a year, but it’s a rough one.

How about that Giambino, limping up there off the bench and belting one into the upper deck in right field? That’s his team-leading 12th homer and the Yankees’ first walkoff homer of the year. I’d be remiss if I didn’t report that I called the shot, also. What can I tell you — sometimes everything just clicks. (But not for Chien-Ming Wang. What’s up?)

The Yankees selected high-school right-hander Gerrit Cole with the 28th overall pick, and he looks like a guy who should have a rise worth watching through the system. Cole isn’t likely to come cheaply – he’s a Scott Boras client – and they’ll need to have patience, seeing as he’s only 17 years old. But the Yankees aren’t shy about forking over the dough to top level talent, and they do appear to have landed one in Cole.

Here is a look at the Yankees’ selections on Day 1 of the First-Year Player Draft:

Round 1: Gerrit Cole, RHP, Orange Lutheran High School, Orange, Calif. — Cole tops out in the high 90s and sits in the mid 90s with his fastball, and could project either as a starter or a reliever when he begins his professional career. He was 8-2 with an 0.46 ERA as a high school senior.

Compensation Round A: Jeremy Bleich, LHP, Stanford University – Bleich was 2-2 with a 1.09 ERA in five for Stanford as a junior. He also played with the USA Junior National team in 2005 and earned Cape Cod League All-Star honors while playing for the Wareham Gatemen in 2006.

Round 2: Scott Bittle, RHP, University of Mississippi – Bittle was 7-1 with a 1.78 ERA and eight saves coming out of the bullpen for Ole Miss in 2008. In 70 2/3 innings, he allowed 35 hits and 15 runs (14 earned), walking 30 and striking out 130. A product of Texarkana, Tex., Bittle also lettered two years at Northeast Texas Community College and was named an All-Conference selection.

Round 3: David Adams, 2B, University of Virginia — Adams is a hard-nosed type who has drawn comparisons to Jeff Kent as an offensive player who is steady defensively. Adams hit .286 (66-for-231)with six home runs and 51 RBIs in 61 games for the Cavaliers in 2008. He was taken by the Detroit Tigers in 2005.

Round 4: Corban Joseph, SS, Franklin (Tenn.) High School - The left-handed hitting Joseph has a slick glove and is a Kentucky signee. He hit .510 this season with 15 home runs and 58 RBIs at Franklin, striking out five times in 135 at-bats.

I felt the correct thing to do was ignore, ignorance. I couldn’t bare that kind of behavior publicly but due to freedom of the internet I personally have no direct control. I only suggest you can find time to better yourself and change.

nycstreet77@aol.com, you should be ashamed of yourself for using such crass, abject, and thoroughly racist terminology. It has no place here, in a baseball discussion, in public discourse, or in American society. It’s repulsive, stupid, and reveals you to be nothing more than a narrow-minded bigot.http://heartlandpinstripes.wordpress.com/

So I just heard on the Michael Kay show that Britton just pulled something near his rib cage and is now on the DL….I thought that you can’t pull fat? Britton was supposed to get some important innings, but that’s shot to hell. I think they called up Dan Giese again.

I didn’t get a chance to watch the game but, i read something funny on yesterdays’ blog….Shelley Duncan as a pinch runner. I guess he’s the fastest out of Moeller and Molina. I think this bench should have a nickname…the Sloths. No wonder they don’t play small ball.
Is Damon in a contract year? He’s on a tear as of late. It worked for Cano last year.
In our perfect world, the Yanks should wipe their butts with KC. This season I won’t hold my breath on taking the series.

Yes, who cares if Farnsworth or Hawkins gets suspended for a day or two! Great to see some of the “focus” now on the Red Sox! Maybe every team should have someone throw two pitches 30 feet over Youkilis’ head! Way to go Joba!!!

Sweet. So it’s all Coco’s (okay Coco is a stripper’s name) fault. I hate the Sox but the Rays need to stop waltzing around like they’re this newfound glory team. You’re playing well—we get it. Now at least pretend to act as if winning isn’t new to you. I’m so annoyed I’m missing Rasner because I really like the guy. Finally a team with a worse record than the Yankees!!! We’d better cream KC…

I don’t know what happened with the Sox and Rays…but I’m in favor for fights now. Think about it. If the Yankees get into a fight, Farnsworth has a huge temper right? So he’ll clearly head butt someone—and then he’ll get suspended. And then I wont have to see his *** blow anymore leads (and even if it’s just for two games—it’ll be two games of bliss). Okay, not home for the weekend but Go Rasner!!!! Oh and what happened with the Sox and the Rays??

We need to draft better and develop better talent from within. Looked at the draftresults from 2000-2003 and there was not a single player that has made an impact in the big leagues. I think we are suffering from bad development of homegrown talent. In 2004 there is Phil Hughes, and from 2005 you are actually able to recognice some of the players drafted. But the years before the draft was downright awful for the Yankees

Far be it from me to defend the Sox, but the Rays are a bunch of *******. The leader of the ******* is Johnny Gomes. That’s twice that he has come in on a player and gotten in a cheap shot. Frankly, Boston is a worthy adversary which is part of the greatest rivalry in the history of sports. The Rays are a collection of bush leaguers that seem to always be involved in this kind of crap.

What choice do we have, nordbek? The only other free agent pitcher worth our time is Ben Sheets, and he’s on the DL more than he’s on the field. What do you think we should do if we don’t chase CC, stick with what we have?

Has anyone else mentioned that the 2 walk-off wins we’ve had this season have come from Cano and Giambi, the guys with the lowet batting averages (among starters)? How weird this game is, I will never fully appreciate. Now I’m going to go watch that dinger…..again! Well, me, it’s nice talking to myself…….

I’m glad to see that Girardi had the “we got lucky and stole one attitude”, which is true. Better that then “we battled and won a hard fought victory”, which was – well – false. I think I’ve watched Giambi’s walk-off like 50 times over the last 2 days. I’m going to go watch it again….

Looks like the draft went OK. It’s not like we’re they Rays and get the first pick every season. Maybe we should tank the next couple of years to get some good draft picks? Now that I’m thinking about it, it’s no wonder why the Rays are doing so well this season, they’ve had the 1st pick in the draft every year for the last 20. What took them so long?

Nice to get on this morning and find out the Steinbrenner’s are looking into extending Trashman. Do they like having fans, or do they think we are stupid and don’t give a crap? Either way, they had better not extend that idiot.
As far as Wang goes, I don’t think we have anything to worry about here. If Wang and Eiland know what is wrong, which they think they do, then I would expect Wang to right the ship quickly. Granted, this is the longest stretch without a win of his career, but he’s going to be fine. Furthermore, give me a top level pitcher that has NEVER had an extended slump, and I’ll show you a video game. Starters just have the misfortune of having slumps magnified because we only see them 1 time per week. Wang will still win 15-19 games this season and that abysmal 4.57 era will get down to his normal 3.80-4.00. It’s not like this guy can go to the strikeout when he’s down anyway, such is the misery of being a groundball pitcher.
Wang isn’t going to be dealt anytime soon. We are especially not going to deal him and retain the 36 year old PEDitte. Bpark, I know that crushes your dream of having a team comprised entirely of senior citizens, drug addicts, or pederasts (in the case of Roidger Clemens all 3 apply) . Sorry, bro.

Bryan,
On the Wang front, here’s a thought. Still a young pitcher but has anyone made the connection between his struggles in the month of May to Posada’s absence? Something to think about. I left work with the bombers down 7-6 in the 7th. I knew they had time and were hitting the ball yesterday so it’s not TOO much of a surprise. Unfortunately when I got home I had to get my lawn mowed and never got back to the game. Good job Giambino! No one can argue that he has been swinging the bat MUCH MUCH better of late. I knew something was up a couple weeks ago when I watched him hit a couple REALLY long bomb outs to left and left center. Then, that line drive up past the 3b-man a couple games ago.

It’s nice to see Giambino’ hit a nice kerk Gibson style bomb. Though the win was most exciting, Ching Ming Wang is still struggling and now would be a good time to hit the panic button. His pitches aren’t working at all and this makes it his fourth consecutive no productive start. Wang and Andy have been faltering they really need to pick it up the team very dependant upon the experience and quality they have given. Overall the Yankees should gain momentum with a win like this and of course Jason’s mustache. I can’t help to restrain myself from commenting on the Red Sox and Tampa series so I will. The Red Sox gained sole possession of first place but it seems at a high cost. With the antics between Coco “The Spartan” Crisp and the Rays this will certainly get both teams considerable suspensions. In the mayhem the Red Sox also managed to get injuries to Jacoby and Manny during the game. Adding dramatics to the game Manny had a surprising altercation with Youkillis. I can see both teams being momentarily handicapped and this would be a great time for the bombers to take advantage in the standings. On another note can this be taken as a sign that Johnny Cashman is being re-valued by the franchise? “We’re going to be talking about it” -Hank Steinbrenner. I don’t feel this to be a adequate time in the season to be evaluating Bryan’s future but I wish him the best. Kudos to draftee Geret Cole to be featured as the Yankees first pick, he must be in complete nirvana. Cheers to Rasner and a good outing too finally but this team above .500 for good!

bdsouth718 yes i was friends with mantle and billy back in the 50’s and later on in life i helped with some of the micks stuff when he had his resturant all though i could not make it when he pased i just was coming back from my 1st stroke!!! and my wife died not to long after that!!!!!! i got all kind of baseball stuff in my apt housing room yankees team balls from the 50’s game used bats old card of the mick billy whitey photos hats you name it i got it baseball relax me after my wife passed and after my 1st stroke!!!!! i cant talk well so i type the best i can!!! hey just saw espn i got a joke you will like this one fight fight a coco baby N____r and a white if the coco N____r wins we all even gomes jumps in and then we will see manney fight with that puke a less!!!!!!!!!!!!! goood night bd south ttyl on the next blog!!!!!!!!!!

well first this is a message to mr. hoch you said that you post the games win or lose right after the games look on 6/3 jaba vs. jays you did not post it untill 6/4 at a little after 9:00 am so what are you talking about? i like you mr. hoch i am not comming after you in anyway i think you are great for doing what you do the hole no balls thing is just a old school baseball joke. like i said i have seen past my years in this great game and just and old man now!!!! so if i got you upset i’m sorry for that just think of me as a grandpa to you!!!im just a nice old man that loves the yanks and get upset when they play bad!!!! but i also tell it like it is!!!!!! so today made me simle when it was 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th and a rod got thae ball through the 3rd base side by inches i said to my self its going to happen we need this it will happen and the a rod scors on a hit and giambi coms up when i saw that ball hit that bat and take off in the yankees blue sky it put a smile down my face it looked like my good old friend the mick jumped in to his body because that the way the mick did it just like that bombs bomber bombs!!!!!!now the bad FARNSWORTHLESS i do not want to type anymore so just guess what i would tell you ok ill say it YOU STIL SUCK YOU DO NOT GET THAT WIN THE YANKEES GOT IT NOT YOU YOU WIN A DIRTY SWEAT SCOK AND A BUS TIket TO JAPAN SO YOU AND IGAWIA CAN MAKE SUSHI!!!!! GOOD NIGHT ALL MR> HOCH TAKE CARE i like u kid smile!!

And middle infielders for 3rd and 4th picks, we are a little thin there! And our A ball SS is hitting .250 with 17 errors!
BTW, Gonzalez is hitting near the Mendoza line at SWB. Looks like we should see him in NY next as a September callup!

OK. Let’s see if Cole and Bleich can duplicate Kennedy and Chamberlain from the 2006 draft! I’ll be watching the short season and Fall rosters for their debut!
FYI. Kennedy didn’t start playing until Spring 2007 but Chamberlain pitched in the Fall Hawiian League!

I like Giambi’s extra inning slam in the rain his first year more than Crosby’s (which I can’t even remember!)
That came after Yankees pitching allowed three runs in the top of the 12th or 13th!

Glad to see Boston playing hard ball with the Rays and their idiot manager. It started with a hard Crisp slide into Iwamura yesterday! Same guy Shelley spiked! But, Cervelli’s “attacker” did get noticed and called up! Don’t know if he still is!

Wang has trouble with men on base, He can’t pitch from the stretch, Of course along with the hits, 4 BBs really don’t help.
Possibly their evaluation of him is correct.
I hear Manny and Youk had an altercation tonight, no word on what happened.
A great comeback win, Damon is tearing it up, Bet another HR, big G coming thru in the clutch. BP except for Farns were good.
“GO YANKEES”

The Yankees knew not to give Wang a long-term deal. Their evaluation reflected Wang’s struggles in big games and late in the year. Wang has been an excellent pitcher but the Yankees weren’t ready to invest big. If Wang continues to struggle and the likes of Chamberlain and Hughes progress this season, it is not completely inconceivable that Wang is moved. This would have seemed implausable at the beginning of the year coming off 2 19 win seasons and starting 6 and 0. However, if you add Sabithia and lets say Pettitte turns things around and wants to open the stadium, the rotation spots begin to shrink. Wang got bailed out by the offense today much like Mussina has had happened this year in some starts. Wang needs to turn things around before his confidence is shot. I remember Wang’s no hitter last year, Torre left Wang in too long, Wang gave up the single(should have been pulled) and then Bam RUNS. I hope that game is not metaphorical of this slump.

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